The 1811 Richmond Theatre Fire

Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2015 The Fatal Lamp and the Nightmare after Christmas: The 1811 Richmond Theatre Fire Amber Marie Martinez Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons © The Author Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/4043 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ©Amber M. Martinez________________________2015 All Rights Reserved The Fatal Lamp and the Nightmare after Christmas The 1811 Richmond Theatre Fire A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. by Amber Marie Martinez Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Director: Dr. Noreen C. Barnes, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Theatre Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia December 2015 ii Acknowledgement The author wishes to thank several people. I would like to thank my son Faris whose presence inspired me to return to school to obtain a master’s degree. I would like to thank my partner Richard for his love and encouragement during the past few years. I would like to thank my parents for their continuous love and support that has seen me through difficult times. I would also like to thank Dr. Noreen C. Barnes for paving the path to discovering my love for this historical event. Last but not least, I would like to thank the Virginia Historical Society for allowing me to spend many hours within their walls falling backward in time. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………………iv Introduction……………………………………………………………………..………………………………….1 Chapter 1: Nineteenth Century Life in Richmond Virginia………………………………………….5 Chapter 2: The Night of December 26th 1811…………………………………………………………17 Chapter 3: Volumes of Smoke and Fire………………………………………………………………….29 Chapter 4: Survivor Accounts..……………………………………………………………………………..37 Chapter 5: Cup of Affliction..………………………………………………………………………………..47 Chapter 6: Religious Transformation……………………………………………………………………..57 Chapter 7: Innovations..………………………………………………………………………………………68 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………….78 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………………………………..83 Vita……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………87 iv ABSTRACT THE FATAL LAMP AND THE NIGHTMARE AFTER CHRISTMAS: THE RICHMOND THEATRE FIRE OF 1811 By Amber Marie Martinez, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015 Director: Dr. Noreen C. Barnes, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Theatre “How strange a preface the loud laughter excited by a pantomime, to volumes of smoke and fire” (The American Standard, 27 December 1811). Building fires were not exactly uncommon back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. When the church bells began to ring at any time other than Sunday morning, it usually meant a building was on fire. On the night of December 26th 1811, in the midst of a pantomime at the Richmond Theatre, a small flame licked a piece of a backdrop and set it on fire. Fed by the column of air in the hollows and passages of the theatre, and increased by the v extremely flammable wood of the boxes, pit, and the canvas ceiling of the lower seats, the fire seemed "like a demon of wrath converging its hundred arms to the center of human life” (Burning of the Richmond Theatre, 1812). I will attempt to examine the night of the Richmond Theatre Fire, an event which shocked a city and soon after the country. 72 persons perished in the flames with more victims dying of their burns within the following days. Every part of the state held someone who lost a friend or relative in the disaster. People were unable to mention the catastrophe without exciting tears of grief. This thesis acts to remind us of one of the most tragic events in our country’s history by exploring the firsthand accounts of people who escaped the fire; a conflagration which fueled the course of religious transformation, aided to regulate laws of theatre buildings, and captivated a nation for a century, before being gradually forgotten over time. INTRODUCTION “Raise the chandelier!” an unknown voice barked. Knowing a candle on it was still lit, a young stagehand hesitated. The irritated voice communicated again in a peremptory manner. With knowledge that he must obey or could find himself without a job, the boy hoisted up the chandelier, hoping his worst fear of a fire would not be made true. As he raised it up, a property man named Rice took notice to what he was doing and demanded the boy lower the lamp and blow it out. Relieved to hear the order, the boy began to aid the descent of the chandelier, only to see the rope tangle. Jiggling it with hopes it would unknot itself, the boy watched as the chandelier began to swing in a jerky circle until one such oscillation caused the flame to make contact with the backdrops. Shouting the alarm to the rear of the stage, the boy desperately requested some of the attendants to cut the cords by which the combustible materials were suspended. Panic-stricken, the man whose duty this fell upon sought his own safety and fled through the backstage door. Obscured from the unassuming audience by a curtain, the flames licked their way up the ropes, along the spread of the hemp backdrops, and toward the sap-covered planks of the ceiling while the second act of the pantomime began. 1 The progression of lighting for theatres has transformed over many centuries. In the beginning of Western theatre from 500 BC until the 1600s, theatrical performances usually took place outdoors in the afternoon so the actor could be lit by sun light. As people moved forward and society became more inventive, lighting began to change. Once theatre moved indoors during the Renaissance and English Restoration, the performer was lit by candle light and later oil lamps. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that theatre started to see the likes of gas lamps for the main source of lighting. The world’s first gas stage-lighting system was installed in 1816 at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, five years after the fire at the Richmond Theatre. Even gaslights were open and unprotected lights and caused fires a number of times in the next few decades. Another way the performers were lit during this time was by use of a lime light which was produced by heating a block of calcium carbonate to incandescence with an oxy-hydrogen torch. Then too, it took another sixty to seventy years before the electric light replaced gas lamps as the major source of theatrical light. It is easy to ascertain that most, if not all, theatre fires in the nineteenth century from the United States to Europe and Great Britain resulted in high numbers of death due to two main factors, lighting and jamming at the exit. The majority of fires during performances originated on the stage or directly backstage due to an open flame. From an open or unprotected light, such as a candle on a chandelier, these flames would catch on some piece of the scenery, backdrop, drapery, rope, or woodwork. Once the fire begun and the audience was notified, the doors would become jammed with people attempting to escape. Over time fire safety and building regulations take form with the 2 inclusion of fire curtains, wider doors, multiple exits, and panic bars thus leading to safer theatres and a decrease in death due to theatre fires. While there are multiple causes for theatre fires recorded over the last two centuries such as temporary gas conduits needed on the stage by way of leaky rubber tubing, the carelessness of lighted matches, the upsetting of kerosene lamps, the smoking of pipes or cigarettes, sparks dropping from torches used to light gas flames, and exposed candles (Gerhard 23), the Richmond Theatre Fire of 1811 was victim to the latter. An oscillating chandelier with a single lit candle became tangled in a rope and led to sheer panic, ultimately causing 72 deaths and countless injuries. To date there is only one book devoted to the subject of the Richmond Theatre fire of 1811, and there is one play which recounts the events that took place that fateful night. Meredith Henne Baker's book, The Richmond Theater Fire: Early America' First Great Disaster, was quite informative. Baker's prime focus was on the effects the fire had within Richmond's Protestant Episcopal congregations in addition to describing the development and expansion of evangelicalism, though she failed to go in depth on that expansion. While it started off quite strong and can easily pull the reader in, the book tapered off in a way that took me by surprise. Clay Mcleod Champan's play Volume of Smoke was enthralling to witness, as it dramatized the viewpoint of the victims of the Richmond Theatre fire. It is evident that Mr. Chapman did some research and used the catastrophic event to fuel his macabre writing by basing the monologues off of original texts about the fire. His prime focus for dramatic inspiration came from Calamity at Richmond, an article I too came across and 3 used within this paper. The characters include a reverend's wife, an actor, a stagehand, property man, carpenter, a few audience members, an orchestra member, blacksmith, physician, actress, and bleeding nun. The idea is that this ensemble of ghosts is condemned to repeat the tragedy night after night for all of eternity.

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